Allan Cole - Wolves of the Gods

When they were done and the world seemed much brighter than before, Hantilia said, "Ask your questions, Safar Timura. I've been waiting for many a day to answer them."

Safar eyed her. Things were beginning to make a glimmer of sense.

"You're the Oracle of Hadin," he said-a statement, not a question.

Hantilia chuckled. "What did you expect? Some sort of great, goddess-like figure descending from the heavens? If so, I fear you must be very much disappointed. To begin with, if you are a student of Asper, you'll realize there are no gods or goddesses about. They're all asleep, you know. Slumbering away in their celestial beds while the world is turned to ashes."

"I'll try again," Safar said. "Are you the Oracle I seek?"

Hantilia shrugged. "I'll have to do," she said. "The original Oracle is … dead, isn't quite the word for such a being. Dissolved, I suppose, is more descriptive. However you put it, she was destroyed when the Caluzians failed to halt the machine." She touched claw to breast. "I am her replacement, so to speak."

Palimak snorted. "Why didn't you just say so right away?" he piped up.

"Good question, son," Safar said. Then to Hantilia, "Do you have an answer?"

"A simple one, actually," she replied. "If I'd have spoken then it would have ruined the spell."

"What spell?" Palimak broke in. "I didn't sense any spell. Neither did Gundara or Gundaree."

"That, my dearest, is because the spell was cast after you left the palace," Hantilia said.

Her form suddenly wavered, weakening, until she seemed about to vanish. Then it firmed. Safar saw moistness in her deep-set demon eyes.

"Forgive me," she said, wiping away an escaped tear. "But I was thinking of what must have happened after you departed."

She paused to compose herself, then said, "The Hantilia you see before you, as you've no doubt guessed, is not a living creature. I suppose you couldn't call me a creature of any kind, living or otherwise. I am merely part of the overall spell-the Great Sacrifice, is what we named it. In reality-if there is such a thing-I and all my followers are dead."

Safar and Palimak were rocked by this statement. They also had no doubt but that it was true. Safar remembered when they left the courtyard Palimak said he felt sorry for Hantilia and the others. The boy must have sensed the tragedy about to unfold.

"It was necessary for us to sacrifice ourselves," Hantilia said, "for the final part of the spell to be cast.

Otherwise there wouldn't have been enough power."

Safar reflected on their perilous journey and realized they never would have made it this far without some outside help. An enormous amount of help, at that, considering the magical snowstorm-which he now realized had been for their benefit.

"To be frank," the Queen continued, "I'm a little surprised my people and I had the will to act when the moment came." She sighed. "At times I wondered if we had all become insanely religious, like those strange cults you hear about in the wilder areas of Esmir."

"You said before that it began with a vision," Safar said. "Of the Lady Felakia appearing before you."

"I lied," Hantilia said. "Or at least my other self lied. I suppose there's not much difference. I'm truly sorry, but it was the easiest way to avoid uncomfortable questions I was forbidden to answer."

"Then what is the truth, Majesty?" Safar asked.

Hantilia indicated a large stone at Safar's feet. "Lift up the rock," she said.

He did as she directed and the stone came up like a lid. Beneath the stone, in a brick-lined hollow, was a packet wrapped in oil cloth.

Safar fumbled the package open, gasping when saw what it contained-an old, leather bound book emblazoned with the sign of Asper.

He leafed through the book with numb fingers. It was a much larger and fuller version of the battered little volume he'd carried with him for so many years. Like the other, it was annotated in the master wizard's hand.

An even greater surprise awaited him in what Hantilia said next.

"I am kin to Lord Asper," she announced. "A direct descendant, to be exact. His great, great-oh, I can't count how many greats you'd put before it-granddaughter. That book has been in my family for many centuries. It was handed down with specific instructions for its use when a certain day came-the doom Lord Asper predicted for the world. It was my misfortune to be the one chosen by the Fates to carry those instructions out."

Safar frowned-he believed her, but some of what she said didn't quite make sense. "How could Asper know of me?" he asked. "I'm more than aware that he was wise and far seeing-but what you are speaking of would require so much specific knowledge of the future it defies imagination."

"Oh, your name isn't in the book, my dear Safar," Hantilia said. "Although if you read deeply you'll see he predicted someone very much like you."

She chuckled. "However, I think he believed you would be a demon like him. Regardless, you're getting the wrong idea. There are no details in the book on exactly what to do when doomsday comes. As you said, how could he predict all the events that have occurred? However, there is a spell in the book we were instructed to perform when trouble began.

"When I cast the spell, I was immediately stricken with a terrible malady." She shuddered at the memory. "I was unable to move from my bed for many weeks and the whole time I suffered the most horrible visions. It's a wonder I wasn't driven insane. In fact, until you rode into the grotto just now I wasn't certain if perhaps I was insane. Anyway, when I recovered I knew exactly what to do-up to and including the Spell of the Great Sacrifice, which was the most important and frightening requirement. I don't know how this knowledge was passed on to me. The point is, the knowledge was there and I felt obliged to act on the plan."

She hesitated, then said, "Strange as it may seem, as time went by and different things happened, I suddenly knew what I had to do next."

Hantilia smiled wryly. "The appearance of the Lady Felakia was my own idea. Actually, when I was ill I did see her in my dreams. She was one of the nicer visionary beings to visit me. I built on that dream to convince my followers of the rightness of the cause. A lie, to be sure. One I'm quite ashamed of and my real self is probably suffering in the hells right now for that sin. And rightly so. But I had to turn my followers into zealots. For who else but a zealot would agree to shoulder the blame for the sins of all human and demonkind-and then commit mass suicide as penance?"

Safar thought of how he'd manipulated his own people to what he believed was for the overall good. He hadn't asked them to commit suicide … although perhaps he had. Look at the situation they were all in-trapped in the Black Lands with Iraj ready to pounce at any moment. The odds were so short it was a grim joke to call it anything else but suicide. Even worse, he wasn't done with his kinsmen yet. If they survived this test he'd have to ask even more from them.

"I see from the look on your face, Safar Timura," Hantilia said, "that you have some … experience, shall I say … in matters of manipulation to achieve your own ends."

"That I do, Majesty," Safar said fervently. "That I do." He collected himself, then said, "I assume you were … uh … created by your … uh … living self, correct?"

"There's no need to spare my feelings, Safar," Hantilia said. "The real me no longer exists. And this image you see before you will vanish in a short while. But, to answer your question-Yes. She created me. I was placed here to await your arrival. The Great Sacrifice, you see, could only be performed in Caluz. Away from the machine and the Black Lands. Part of the spell's intent was to open a portal between the Black Lands to the shores of Caspan, where I was to greet you and instruct you further."